Archive for stars

Last week James Franco got roasted on Comedy Central. As far as celebrity roasts go, this one was pretty good. The actor/writer/producer/poet/painter/student/teacher/all-round renaissance man took his comedy jabs and pounded out a few licks as well.

The most popular theme to attack the guest of honor that night was his sexuality. Whatever it really is, he was a great sport about it.

Now that the show has run and re-run a billion times, a voice in the crowd has risen up – and he’s just as entertaining if not more than those chosen to “roast” Franco. His name is Guy Branum and not unlike the political parties, he's taken on the mantle of delivering the rebuttal to the often offensive statements made traditionally at these events. Call Guy B. the Marco Rubio or Rand Paul of the alternative party. Only he's funny and has something meaningful to say, even if not electable.

Take a moment and enjoy. Politically correct this ain't... and I'm so glad for that.

Explanation: The Great Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda (aka M31), a mere 2.5 million light-years distant, is the closest large spiral to our own Milky Way. Andromeda is visible to the unaided eye as a small, faint, fuzzy patch, but because its surface brightness is so low, casual skygazers can't appreciate the galaxy's impressive extent in planet Earth's sky. This entertaining composite image compares the angular size of the nearby galaxy to a brighter, more familiar celestial sight. In it, a deep exposure of Andromeda, tracing beautiful blue star clusters in spiral arms far beyond the bright yellow core, is combined with a typical view of a nearly full Moon.

Explanation: The spiral arms of bright galaxy M106 sprawl through this remarkable multiframe portrait, composed of data from ground- and space-based telescopes. Also known as NGC 4258, M106 can be found toward the northern constellation Canes Venatici. The well-measured distance to M106 is 23.5 million light-years, making this cosmic scene about 80,000 light-years across. Typical in grand spiral galaxies, dark dust lanes, youthful blue star clusters, and pinkish star forming regions trace spiral arms that converge on the bright nucleus of older yellowish stars. But this detailed composite reveals hints of two anomalous arms that don't align with the more familiar tracers. Seen here in red hues, sweeping filaments of glowing hydrogen gas seem to rise from the central region of M106, evidence of energetic jets of material blasting into the galaxy's disk. The jets are likely powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole.